Clean and oil pulleys, blocks, and cables.

“Clean and oil pulleys, blocks, and cables.” is a core task performed by Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas. Among the occupation's 22 rated tasks, workers place it 8th by importance (#15 most important). About 96% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Clean tools, equipment, facilities, or work areas. in Performing General Physical Activities
• Maintain tools or equipment. in Repairing and Maintaining Electronic Equipment

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Train crews, and introduce procedures to make drill work more safe and effective. · importance 4.5
• Observe pressure gauge and move throttles and levers to control the speed of rotary tables, and to regulate pressure of tools at bottoms of boreholes. · importance 4.5
• Count sections of drill rod to determine depths of boreholes. · importance 4.4
• Push levers and brake pedals to control gasoline, diesel, electric, or steam draw works that lower and raise drill pipes and casings in and out of wells. · importance 4.4
• Connect sections of drill pipe, using hand tools and powered wrenches and tongs. · importance 4.4
• Maintain records of footage drilled, location and nature of strata penetrated, materials and tools used, services rendered, and time required. · importance 4.4
• Maintain and adjust machinery to ensure proper performance. · importance 4.3
• Start and examine operation of slush pumps to ensure circulation and consistency of drilling fluid or mud in well. · importance 4.3
• Locate and recover lost or broken bits, casings, and drill pipes from wells, using special tools. · importance 4.3
• Weigh clay, and mix with water and chemicals to make drilling mud. · importance 4.2
• Direct rig crews in drilling and other activities, such as setting up rigs and completing or servicing wells. · importance 4.2
• Monitor progress of drilling operations, and select and change drill bits according to the nature of strata, using hand tools. · importance 4.2
• Repair or replace defective parts of machinery, such as rotary drill rigs, water trucks, air compressors, and pumps, using hand tools. · importance 4.1
• Cap wells with packers, or turn valves, to regulate outflow of oil from wells. · importance 4.1

See all tasks on the Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-8309,
  title  = {Clean and oil pulleys, blocks, and cables.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-8309}
}